Exploring vintage jazz vinyl with a focus on label and pressing details, discographical information and critical musings on the music found within the grooves.
Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus was Charles Mingus' last major studio recording of the 1960s and it's a real treasure in the great jazz bassist's discography. The album features a large band of talented musicians in top form performing Mingus' notoriously complex compositions, many of which are reinterpretations of some of his earlier classic songs.
Read MoreOrnette Coleman's radical ideas about melody and pitch in jazz have been so thoroughly absorbed by the jazz establishment that his early musical explorations simply seem like a natural progression of where jazz was headed at the time, and where much of it is today. There is, of course, one glaring exception to this rule, an album by Coleman that even today defies categorization and eludes easy explanation: Free Jazz.
Read MoreCanned Funk would be Joe Farrell's sixth (and second-to-last) album for CTI, and his last truly jazz-funk recording for the label. While it is not quite up to the awesome heights of his earlier CTI recordings, it is still a quality '70s funky outing that stays rooted in some excellent improvisation despite it's electric jazz and fusiony flourishes
Read MoreThe general knowledge in the American jazz community of Hayes goes beyond just under-appreciation and into the realm of ignorance. Not completely surprising, of course, as the best jazz music of the late 1950s and early 1960s clearly resided along the coasts of the United States and jazz from across the water was not exactly a huge selling point to the jazz fan looking for the next big thing for their turntable.
Read MoreGeorge Cables was everywhere during the 1970s, appearing alongside an abundance of legendary players on all manner of jazz albums. Cables' Vision was actually his first outing as a leader, and for the occasion Cables called upon a couple of friends he had played often with in the previous decade, who just also happened to be two legends from jazz's classic period that were still recording on a regular basis.
Read MoreBarney Kessel will always be best known in the jazz world for his run of albums on Contemporary from 1955 to 1960, all of which are excellent examples of modern jazz at it's finest. Music To Listen To Barney Kessel By finds the guitarist as part of a larger ensemble, playing shorter tracks that fall somewhere between a cool jazz and swing jazz sound. And, man, can Kessel swing with the best of them. He doesn't waste any notes, and is clearly just as comfortable in this group setting as he is playing with a trio.
Read MoreThe jazz world generally looks at Herbie Hancock's 1973 jazz-funk opus Head Hunters as the keyboardist's first foray into combining the world of funk, soul and R&B rhythms with jazz improvisation, but in fact it was four years earlier with Fat Albert Rotunda that Herbie showed how funky jazz music could really be
Read MoreLonnie Liston Smith had been recording as the leader of his own band "The Cosmic Echoes" a little less than five years by the time Live! was released in 1977. By then it was no secret what Smith had to offer: funky and soulful electric jazz that landed somewhere in the realms of fusion, soul jazz and post bop.
Read MoreAfter making a name for himself in the early 1950s on the West Coast jazz scene, Curtis Counce put together The Curtis Counce Group in 1956 and promptly recorded three albums for the Contemporary label, all firmly rooted in the hard bop style. Landslide is highly recommended for anyone who loves modern straight ahead jazz with a soulful and bluesy edge.
Read MoreThe Sonny Clark classic "Cool Struttin'" performed live at the 1986 Mt. Fuji Jazz Festival.
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